Sunday, September 30, 2012

Moscone West called. Moscone South called. The Hilton called. The Palace called. The Grand Hyatt, the Marriott and Mission Bay Conference Center called too. They all had leftover boxed lunches. 600 at the Palace. 400 at the Grand Hyatt. 150 at the Hilton. Another 400 at the Marriott... you get the pitcutre! A grand total of about 1,500 per day. Every day for four straight days. Salesforce.com's "Dreamforce 2012"convention was in town September 18th through September 21st, featuring over 46,000 attendees, world re-known keynote speakers, exciting expos, brilliant "break out" sessions, glittering social events, galas, world class musical performances and food, food, food. San Francisco positively rained food.

Howard Street was closed between 3rd and 4th all week. Traffic snarled. Locals fumed. Conventioneers, with convention swag in hand, breezed blithely back and forth between Moscone North and Moscone South across the above mentioned, closed-to-vehicles thoroughfare. Downtown hotels bustled at capacity. San Francisco's hospitality industry rejoiced. So did Food Runners. Excess boxed lunches filled the walk-ins, the reach-ins, and every available inch of refrigerator space before finding their way onto the Food Runners truck for delivery to San Franciscans in need.

As is often the case during large conventions, there is no way for planners to know in advance how many guests will partake of the lunches provided and how many will choose to dine at local restaurants instead or just skip lunch altogether. Hence the surplus. Purgatory for planners. Pure gold for Food Runners.

Sister Marie Benedict at Fraternite Notre Dame crossed herself and looked skyward when the Food Runners truck pulled up overflowing with lexans full of chicken from McCall's. At City Impact, the dining room manager's eyes got huge when towers of boxed lunches rolled through the door. "Wow. Enough for everybody!" he exclaimed. Kay at the Gene Friend Rec Center just grinned when the teens in her after school program bolted from their volleyball game to the kitchen to chow down on, what for some, may have been their only meal for the day.

For a whole week, San Francisco was awash in excess food. For a whole week, Food Runners made sure that, all over town, agencies feeding the hungry got a piece of the pie. OracleWorld starts tomorrow. It promises to be just like Dreamforce. For Food Runners it is another week of a Food Runners dream come true.

Convention season is in full swing and holiday season is just around the corner. Have you thought about what happens to the leftover food at the holiday parties and galas you will attend? If you suspect it will be thrown away, tell the caterer about Food Runners. A simple phone call to 415-929-1866 will keep the food out of the garbage and get it to where it is needed most.